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Columbus Mabika-Herald Reporter

Tanzanian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Professor Emmanuel Mbennah yesterday said Harare and Dar es Salaam have strong political and historical ties and will enhance economic cooperation to improve the welfare of their citizens. 

Prof Mbennah, who was touring Zimpapers, said Zimbabwe and Tanzania will continue towards growing their economies. 

“Indeed Zimbabwe and Tanzania are long standing friends, historical ties go far back from early 1960s from the time when the struggle for independence was being fought,” he said. “Tanzania was honoured to be part of the support in various ways of the struggle. 

The two nations stand together when it comes to working with other nations on the continent and abroad.” Prof Mbennah, whose country achieved a middle-income economy this year, said the policies being vigorously pursued by President Mnangagwa under the Second Republic will see Zimbabwe attaining an upper middle economy by 2030. “The Government is very clear that Zimbabwe is open for business and that goes beyond the expressions,” he said. “The environment is very conducive and attractive for investment, business and economic activity. 

“I hope the world is looking and seeing for themselves that Zimbabwe is the place to go, a place not to hesitate or wonder.” 

Prof Mbennah said the two counties will be following up on the five agreements signed under the Zimbabwe-Tanzania Joint Permanent Commission Cooperation in 2019. 

The MoUs are on diplomatic and political consultation, cooperation on economic, industry and trade relations, tourism development, promotion of small and medium enterprises development and cooperation towards the promotion and empowerment of women, gender equality and community development. 

“Those agreements are still in place; there was a little bit of a slowdown due to the pandemic in executing some of the things that are stipulated in those agreements. Both countries remain committed to executing the areas under the agreement,” he said.  On infrastructure development, Prof Mbennah said the two nations share joint vision that infrastructure was key to national development and prosperity. “In terms of infrastructure development, the joint vision to have strong infrastructure is in the area of cooperation in supporting each other and how we share resources, be they financial or technical to make sure that we both move forward in developing our countries,” he said. During his tour of Zimpapers, Prof Mbennah praised the media institution for the work it is doing to inform citizens.

He said he lived for some time in the 1970s without access to media, and said it was a bad experience. Prof Mbennah toured The Herald, The Sunday Mail and Zimpapers Television Network (ZTN).